What the likes of Sherani completely overlook is that this isn’t just about an anarchic women rights agenda but it is about men too. —INP/File

Not very long ago, singer-turned-cleric, Junaid Jamshed riled up a significant number of religious groups after a video of his diatribe was released online.

It was the usual; Jamshed shaming women for existing, speaking of them as strange creatures who need to be ‘controlled’ but who can never be truly understood.

What was different this time was that he channeled his chauvinism towards the Prophet’s (PBUH) wife. Like clockwork, Jamshed was pushed to release a video taking back his words and apologise, before fleeing the country. He said he didn’t mean to be blasphemous or disrespectful; it is believable, because what became evident was that Jamshed’s chauvinism knows no bounds.

We should know better than anyone else that religion can be a trenchant tool for complete control. Very often, the control begins with establishing a patriarchal culture. Not your usual ‘it’s a man’s world’ patriarchy, but the kind where women aren’t the lesser ones, they simply do not exist.

Consent is all but absent; in fact, having consent at all is seen as a grave threat.

The most recent poster child for this misogyny is Maulana Sherani, of the good old Council of Islamic Ideology. He’s back with yet another statement on marriage, divorce and all things women.

On the face of it, you are free; you can get educated and even have a job but all along you must never forget your true purpose; to get married and raise a family.

The obsession with the ‘need to get married’ is exactly what pushes men like Sherani to release statements about how unnecessary it is for a partner to consent — if such willingness even exists — to polygamy.

For Sherani and many others, marriage is a man’s need, to lay it bare ‘sex’ is a man’s need and so he should be allowed to have multiple partners at the same time.

What the likes of Sherani completely overlook is that this isn’t just about an anarchic women rights agenda but that this is about men too.

This kind of mindset degrades men before all else, by minimising them into sex crazed, emotionless masters that need to be satisfied endlessly.

Men, then become the kind of individuals, who can never feel empathy, hold any kind of emotions other than the ones associated with masculinity and can’t under any circumstances, be vulnerable. In fact, their only vulnerability remains their sexual desires.

“I can’t find my daughter, where did she go?.. is this justice? I spent all my savings to make dowry for my daughter… where is she? they took everything..” her voice shaking as she nodded in disbelief in the empty charred streets of Joseph colony. An angry mob set180 houses on fire in reaction to an alleged incident of blasphemy. In another corner, a young man spoke to the camera “If this what they do to our schools, our churches and our houses, what will they do to us?…”. 2 years later, the sights and sounds of Joseph Colony can be witnessed elsewhere in Kot Radha Kishan, where a pregnant woman and her husband were burnt alive in a brick kiln because someone said they had disrespected the Prophet.

Change the names, places and time but the rest remains the same, too many Christian families have lost loved ones, belongings, churches and their homes to an angry mob only satiated by blood. Nevertheless, another attack took place this week, when two suicide bombers attacked churches in Lahore that left 17 dead, and over 70 injured. This time though, the Christian community took the streets in a “rare” display of rage. Rare because we are too accustomed to feeling sorry for the poor minorities who are now being eliminated on church at a time, the helpless minority who have no one to speak for them, the weak minority who need immediate attention and protection, the minority that mostly just gets our pity rather than solidarity.

The same community, 100,000 strong in Youhanabad took to the streets to demand justice. Raging and in grief, a Lynch mob senselessly attacked a glass-cutter, someone shouted demanding mercy for Naeem, but there was no stopping, for the crowd Naeem was a supposed accomplice of the attackers who had mercilessly killed dozens. Today, reports reveal that Naeem only went to do his job, on the wrong day at the wrong time.It’s startlingly painful to imagine, the fear, the rage and the burning desire for revenge. Reports have emerged regarding the protesters turning violent, it’s disturbingly shocking that it seems rather odd that members of a “a minority community” not only took the streets but decided to turn violent to express their anger and frustration. We are so accustomed of the pleading for mercy that the images of an angry protest shakes us to the core.

This isn’t just rage, it is resistance, pushing back and reclaiming their right to life. This may be the first time, but it won’t be the last. When cries for mercy, peace and protection go unnoticed for decades, a stronger more powerful resistance emerges. This is that moment and this time it has come at the cost of innocent people’s life.They’ll be more blood on the streets after every attack, they’ll be more burning after homes are charred and the silent minority won’t just be on your tv screens they’d be in your streets and outside your doorstep demanding justice.

“We pick their garbage, we clean their houses, we make this place liveable. They kill us and they’d smother in their own garbage..”

It is beyond tragic that the men that shot human rights advocate Rashid Rehman five times, had to pretend to be clients in order to kill him.

After all, why should pious men undertaking God’s work ever have to come in disguise like cold blooded cowards?

They should have learnt a thing or two from their comrade, Advocate Zulfiqar Sindhu, who being the self-appointed messiah that he is, blatantly pronounced a death sentence for Rehman in an open court.

What a remarkably honest man.

Rehman too, should have known better. He worked for the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP); a quick look at the HRCP’s annual report for 2013 would have informed him that the ‘pious men of God’ burned down 100 homes as residents fled fearing for their lives, 17 Ahmadis, 13 Christians and nine Muslims were forced to live in indefinite detention inside prisons awaiting death, as no one is willing to take up their case and the lawyers who are compelled to do so keep leaving one after another.

Activists stage a protest against the killing of Rashid Rehman. —Photo by Tanveer Shahzad – DAWN

With Rehman’s murder that too shall end.

Rehman should have known better than to challenge men who would not even spare him after his death; he should have reread the stories of the Hindus of Badin who weredug out of their graves because they were buried in the wrong graveyard.

In an email, a few days before his death, Rehman raised concerned over media reports that covered a “one-sided” story. He felt irresponsible reporting was flaming the issue.

I am surprised no one replied to remind him about Meher Bokhari’s hour-long TV show reading out fatwas against a sitting Governor who was later shot over 20 times and killed for seeking pardon for a blasphemy accused mother.

Rehman should have known better than to expect the media to cover both sides of the story. If he was being fair and honest, he would have known that when it comes to God’s self-appointed helpers, there is no other side to the story, you can choose between a life of solitary confinement or a lynch mob. A lynch mob is usually easier and quicker.

One fine evening in September 2012, a law abiding, zealous and concerned countryman made a phone call to the Prime Minister’s office “Raja sahab, have you read the news? The Libyans have killed the US ambassador and the situation is out of control. I can not believe it, it’s incomprehensible. We must fix this at once, it’s important that we do so now”.

Shortly after, then Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf did what duty demanded of him, he passed an executive order to ban access to YouTube. It made absolute sense, but that wasn’t enough, duty demanded that the state go one step ahead – not to be competitive with Libya or Egypt – and sanction a day for “showing love to the Prophet”. And so, passionate lovers thronged the streets of Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad and showered their affection by pelting stones, setting ablaze a few buildings and a bunch of cars; yes, passion can be ruthless.

After the ban in Pakistan was imposed, Afghanistan and Bangladesh followed lead. Both have since revoked the ban, to be clear Pakistan remains the only country in the world where YouTube is still blocked in reaction to the infamous video.

Although, there was a moment of clarity in December 2012 when the ban was revoked, but that quite literally lasted for two hours only. Letters, features, reports, articles and even court summons have gone unnoticed by the now Minister of State for Information Technology, Anusha Rehman Khan. Where Pakistan People’s Party that takes great pride in it’s liberal and democratic values initiated the ban, the Pakistan Muslim League (N) despite it’s love for economy, has paid no heed to the plight of artists, entrepreneurs, academics and businesses.

In countries where a local version of YouTube existed – an official legal presence of the company – the option to remove the video from their jurisdiction seemed an easy option to satisfy rioters and angry citizens. The method is simple, in areas where YouTube has a local presence a request can be sent by authorities to take down certain content citing a law and/or a court order. However, a quick look at theGoogle Transparency Report reveals that only a small portion of such takedown requests are complied with. In Pakistan’s case, however, Google does not have a local presence and therefore doesn’t abide by the local laws. [See Google’s response to localisation and content removal in Pakistan’s case].

In countries like Bangladesh, that faced a similar situation like Pakistan, there is an option of placing an ‘interstitial’ – a warning screen – before the content, because on the internet, unlike television, access to content is mostly voluntary. Unless a user switches on their computer, connects it to the internet and proactively looks for the content, there’s a very slim chance they would be able to stumble upon it. So a warning screen before an offensive video seemed a sensible option.

But of course, we didn’t buy that, we want the video to be removed in its entirety, which begs the question even if it is removed from access in Pakistan, does it change the fact that it will still be accessible? If its still accessible elsewhere, how does that change anything? And even if it is removed from around the world, how does it prevent others from pulling off similar stunts? If there was ever a way to demonstrate a quick fire way to deprive a country of 180 million from access to information, we made it pretty darn easy.

This now brings me to the recent hoopla, a district court in San Francisco hasdirected Google to remove the ‘Innocence of Muslims’ video on copyright grounds based on a plea made by actress Cindy Lee Garcia. The claims are similar to the ones that were reported when the video was released, that the actress was ‘duped’ into appearing in the video, was unaware of the content, had not signed release orders, and received threats after it was uploaded.

Following the order, the video has been removed from YouTube (for now), a quick search reveals trailers that show a “copyright takedown screen”. Its important to remember the court order is in light of the copyright violation and not the nature of the content of the video, similarly Google’s reaction to the court order is on the use of the copyright law for content takedown and not the nature of the content in question.

The government that was quick to keep access to the site blocked has been exceptionally slow with their response. Surprise, surprise! The ban was never based on the video but a good-looking public excuse to allow filters to be installed that can make room for blanket surveillance and censorship. National security, blasphemy and immorality have made for great excuses to censor information.

From the anatomy of the breast to breast cancer, we’ve got all our national security threats sorted and successfully blocked. There might be a phone call in the offing to tell Minister sahiba and brief PM sahab on how the video may reappear once again, never mind other petty issues such as the Taliban offensive and the education emergency that demand our immediate attention, and the ministry will have yet another public excuse to keep the ban going.

In the past six months, we have heard it all, from buying filters to blocking access to the specific video, to renting filters from PTCL, to forcing Google to localise, to banning all of Google if it doesn’t comply, to now, finding a new excuse to keep the site blocked, there is no method to this madness, neither an end.

It took well over a year for the court in San Francisco to make its decision, Google will be challenging the decision based on the use of the copyright law, which in case of a content sharing website could be lethal, but that might take a while.

The state has in its hands a unique opportunity to mend its ways, we can either choose to dig our heads out of the sand or keep shooting ourselves in the foot; I’ll keep the Band-Aids handy.

Rape. It’s one of those words that I can repeat a thousand times over without ever associating myself with it. I hear, read & speak about it often, but without a sense of self. I say that because I’m a rape survivor.

I survived rape even before I knew it existed, let alone comprehend the pain and complexities it brings with it during & years after. I can talk about its repercussions and the every minute struggle, I can speak of pain, the lack of understanding on how rape is more about violence and less about rape, can testify to its ability to mess with your brain & everything else, but what I can’t do or don’t do enough is associate it with myself, my life & who I am today. I survived rape. But there’s more to my life than just that. I’ve achieved more than I ever imagined I would, most of all I’ve been loved more than I ever though anyone could ever be. I’m not social, but I am friendly, I can feel compassion and be passionate & motivated by things. But while I continue to live my life, there are also these tiny moments of relapse, of vulnerability, sometimes I feel it’s like life is more like playing mine sweeper, you never know when you hit a trigger & everything goes roaring back to zero.

But my rape doesn’t define me. It’s only a fraction of time, among all the other moments I cherish and regret. It’s a part of my life. It’s not my identity either. But my rape, and I say ‘my’ as means to eliminate the last bit of shame — unintentionally unknown shame that’s not mine to keep, is what unfortunately shapes my interactions & thought process many a time. The sight of a staircase, a broken branch, a ball rolling down an alleyway, a rope. Far too many harmless things that have the ability to cause severe emotional and physical pain. Sometimes the triggers are so severe that all I can think is pushing back every single thing that could possibly protect me; to isolate myself and detach completely. The flashbacks, they’re lethal, it’s like each time your abuser comes back physically in front of you, his voice in whispers
” No one’s going to hear you scream, no one’s coming to help..”

Like everything you’ve ever been able to accomplish is razed to the ground within moments. But those words have never meant anything to me like they did today. When I felt that I’ve lost my only one ability that allowed me to act, my ability to listen & my words; that’s all my strength. But I know that this too shall pass, but for starters I want to hold on to the only thing that gives me strength & use them to tell my story.

You don’t need to know who I’m. Please allow me the anonymity & the ability to tell my story without taking any more burdens.

I write to you in the hope of assisting you in a rather arduous task being assigned to you by the PTA. If recent reports are to be believed, the Pakistan telecommunication authority has done the unthinkable; in a rare moment of clarity the PTA has requested the parliament to define ‘blasphemy’.

Yes, after the country’s governor was shot 27 times for seeking pardon for a blasphemy accused mother, his murderer garlanded by lawyers and defended by the ex-Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court, a 14-year-old young girl and her family driven out of the country, a 70-year-old mentally unstable woman sentenced to 14 years in jails, several hundred burnt houses and dozens of lynched dead bodies later, you’ve finally been approached to determine what exactly classifies as blasphemy.

If you ask me, it’s rather strange that none of the incidents – or call them random acts of insanity – I summarised were able to do what a B-grade filmmaker was able to achieve. But then again, priorities! We are a nation of strange people and reactions; we forgive the unforgivable and punish ourselves for the crimes of others.

Without wasting much time, I’d want to discuss the important issue at hand. Now that you’ve been given the responsibility of defining blasphemy for the nation, given how difficult it is to be specific, and government policies are by their nature vague, I’d say go with enlisting instances of blasphemy for clarity’s sake:

One commits blasphemy each time they harm another in the name of religion.

One commits blasphemy each time they incite hatred for another in the name of religion.

One commits blasphemy each time they justify murder in the name of religion.

One commits blasphemy each time they persecute another for their faith or lack of it.

One commits blasphemy each time they infringe the right to freedom of expression, opinion or movement of another, in the name of religion.

For the biggest form of blasphemy that we all almost always commit is to force another to live in fear for believing, speaking, thinking and sometimes even existing, as we justify it in the name of our faith or stand silent as we bear witness.

No videos, sketches or hate speeches have hurt Islam more than the reckless army of blood thirsty goons justifying vandalism in the name of religion.

There doesn’t exist a form of disrespect bigger than justifying cold-blooded murder and hate in God’s name. To instill fear and lawlessness in the society and to justify that as an act of faith. End the insanity now, tell the nation that we aren’t all potential blasphemers waiting to be lynched as and when the opportunity arises.